Harry Gregson-Williams

Harry Gregson-Williams is an award-winning film composer from the U.K. who began making his mark on the Hollywood film industry around the turn of the century. Known for his work in movie franchises such as Shrek and The Chronicles of Narnia, he's the older brother of film/TV composer Rupert Gregson-Williams.

Born in England on December 13, 1961, Gregson-Williams studied voice and piano at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, where he later taught music. While he began working as a film composer in the early '90s, his big break came when he was taken under the wing of Oscar-winning film composer Hans Zimmer during the mid-'90s. He worked on the soundtracks of Zimmer-scored films including Crimson Tide (1995), Muppet Treasure Island (1996), The Rock (1996), and As Good as It Gets (1997). He went on to collaborate with Trevor Rabin (1998's Enemy of the State and Armageddon) and John Powell (1998's Antz, 2000's Chicken Run, 2001's Shrek) as well.

Meanwhile, Gregson-Williams began taking the lead on the soundtracks of children's movies like The Tigger Movie (2000) and Spy Kids (2001) as well as action films such as Phone Booth (2002) and The Rundown (2003). By mid-decade, he was scoring A-list films including Shrek 2 (2004), Man on Fire (2004), and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) which earned him a Grammy nomination for best score. His subsequent work in the 2000s included Gone Baby Gone (2007), Shrek the Third (2007), The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008), and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). In addition, he began composing music for the video game franchises Metal Gear Solid and Call of Duty. Highlights of his work in the 2010s include Shrek Forever After (2010), Cowboys & Aliens (2011), The Martian (2015), and The Zookeeper's Wife (2017). He also scored the giant shark drama The Meg (2018), the Denzel Washington-starring action pic The Equalizer 2, and the Disney nature documentary Penguins (2019). His score for the 2017 Australian drama Breath received a belated release by Filmtrax in 2020. ~ Marcy Donelson & Jason Birchmeier, Rovi